Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Watermelon Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rinds
Peel the watermelon rinds and remove the pink pulp.
Cut the rinds into suitable pieces and sprinkle with coarse sea salt, using 1 cup of salt for every 2 gallons of rind.
Place the rinds in a stone jar or crock, cover with cold water, and let sit overnight.
Drain the brine and cook the rinds in fresh water until tender, then drain well.
Make the syrup and pickle
In a pot, combine sugar, vinegar, cinnamon sticks, and cloves in a muslin sack; cook for 10 minutes to make syrup.
Combine the syrup with the rinds and cook slowly for another 10 minutes.
Transfer the pickles into jars.
In a day or two, reheat the syrup and pour it over the pickles while hot. Cover and store.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,386 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,187 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Watermelon rinds
- Provide the bulk of the pickle, becoming tender and absorbing the syrup during cooking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pickle and, with vinegar, forms the syrup that preserves and flavors the rinds.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp tang and helps preserve it.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the rinds during the overnight brine, firming their texture.
- Cinnamon sticks
- Contribute warm, sweet aroma to the syrup.
- Cloves
- Add aromatic spice flavor to the syrup.
The step that matters
Overnight salt brine. Salt draws water out of the rind through osmosis, firming the flesh so it stays crisp rather than mushy after cooking. Skipping or shortening the soak, or using too little salt, leaves the rinds soft and less able to hold their texture.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, cinnamon):
- Allspicefits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Cardamomfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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